Journalism Final

Casey Holmes

Journalism F

January 22, 2014

Teenagers these days are considered lazy, self-absorbed, and rebellious. Teenagers do not have a good reputation because they are always on social media and rush to do their homework. Some people think that these traits are just a part of growing up while other people think it will contribute to how they act when they are an adult. Adolescents have a different perspective on other teenagers than adults and have very outspoken minds. I asked lots of teenagers, “Do you think that other teenager girls are self-absorbed?”

Deb said, "I don't think all teenage girls are; I mean some of them are self-absorbed. They take selfies, that's the first part of self-absorbed is "self". All the posting to Instagram and Snapchat seems a bit much." She later went on to explain that all the teenagers do is take pictures of themselves in the best light to get the most likes, reblogs, or retweets. It gives them self-confidence but a selfie every day is a little too much, and very annoying. This makes teenagers self-centered since they're always trying to make themselves look cool or pretty to society’s standards and not they're own true intentions.

Molly from the freshman class says that  “A lot of teenage girls are self-absorbed today simply because everyone else is so determined to make their hair and makeup look perfect every single day, which in turn makes other girls become obsessed with their own self-image and how they view themselves." Deb and Molly are in tune thinking that society makes girls think that they need to be pretty or get a lot of likes to be popular or on top. Sadly, it's a never ending cycle that each generation has to deal with but in completely different ways. "Unlike the egocentrism of preschoolers which is based on concrete problems," says Dr. Paul Schwartz ," Adolescent egocentrism concerns more abstract thoughts and ideas." He is saying that teenagers only do what they think is cool based on what everyone else thinks is cool, but might not be what is actually cool. This theory is complex in its own matter, confusing the adolescent brain to become so insecure about her flaws that she becomes so self-absorbed to make herself on top of the pyramid. This self-absorption therefore causes jealousy of who has the newest item, who goes to the most parties, who has the best grades, or even who has the coolest clique. "Girls are judgmental because they look for the flaws in other girls that they find in themselves. When they judge other girls in reality judging themselves, at least in part," states Molly a freshman at Norton High School. This jealousy causes cliques to fall apart at the seams or make them stronger because they judge everyone including their friends all the time and together. Judging and gossiping is a "fun" and easy way to pass time when all you can do is tweet something and text all your friends at any time of the day you wish. In return, talking to people too much causes you to become jealous of what they have and not be only happy with what you have in your life. Nancy said, "The only reason people judge other people is because it's cool to hate everything that is thrown at you. I think it's quite cool to find someone who doesn't hammer down on you just because you don't feel the need to know all the gossip and to talk about boys and people’s enemies." Even though it is okay to not like certain things, everyone thinks that it is exceptionally cool to think differently than everyone else, but in thinking differently just like everyone else that’s what makes us the same.

 “I think girls just put up a fake wall to make themselves seem more outgoing than they actually are so more people will like them. All the girls that post selfie after selfie are just looking for people's approval. It's all about how many likes they get because they constantly need to know what people think. And girls judge each other because they just want to make themselves feel good. Girls have their own hierarchy. The cool girls on top have to judge the girls in the bottom so they stay on top and the girls on the bottom judge the girls on top because they are bitter about being on the bottom. If girls weren't constantly worried about what other people think of them they wouldn't be judgmental or self-centered,” stated Jacey Anderson. All of these people can come to agree that teenagers are self-absorbed because of what they think that people think about them, they are insecure, and want to be approved in the eyes of society.

 

 

In return, ‘ "We are getting a lot more calls these days from kids who are really interested in volunteering," said Celine Fortin associate executive director of ARC of New Jersey, an advocacy group for people with developmental disabilities,’ shows that many teenagers do care about having an impact on their community. Even though community service does look good on college applications and is required for certain high schools this is an overwhelming amount of adolescents looking to serve their community.  This shows that people aren’t constantly caring about themselves, they want to help out people with disabilities or people that are less fortunate. "The only time they're not self-centered is when they're playing a sport," Jacob continued," with younger kids, and are especially good with special needs children." He said this because he feels as though teenagers want to set a good example for other people but can't maintain their consistency. They want to impress people to show that it's not only about them, and once in a while they can take the time to not be constantly thinking about themselves. "She learned that that it's not so much what teens are thinking — it's how." Stated Richard Knox.  Even though some people, including journalists and news reporters may want to blame the parents for how their children's behavior, it's ultimately up to the adolescent. Six out of the seven people that I interviewed completely thought that teenagers are self-absorbed. It's how they think about thinking, how they think society sees them, they feel the need to impress people since they are insecure, it’s just a phase that most teenagers go through, the phase of self-absorption.

 

 

 

 

 

MLA Format

 

Knox, Richard. "The Teen Brain: It's Just Not Grown Up Yet." NPR. N.p., 1 Mar. 2010. Web. 10 Jan. 2014.  (MLA Format For npr.org)

Schwartz, Paul. "HudsonValleyParent." Teens Becoming Self-centered. N.p., 10 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.

Yellin, Deena. "Teens Self-absorbed? Think Again. Youth Volunteers Fill Service Gaps." The Record. N.p., 10 Mar. 2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.